HISTORY

HEROES AND VILLAINS

The Hon. Charles Spencer Cowper (1816 - 1879)

Spencer Cowper - Two Prime Minsiters, Two Wives

Charles Spencer Cowper was the third and youngest son of the 5th Earl Cowper
by his marriage to Emily Lamb, sister of British Prime Minister Lord
Melbourne. Born in 1816, Charles was appointed a clerk in the Foreign
Office in 1834. He was 21 when his father died and his brother George
succeeded as 6th Earl Cowper. In 1839, Charles's mother married Lord Palmerston,
the future Prime Minister who was then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
For the previous five years, Charles had worked as Palmerstons' private secretary
in the Foreign Office. He then became Secretary of the British Legation at
Florence. He was Charge d'Affaires for Florence until 1841 when transferred
to Stockholm. He left the diplomatic service in 1843 when he succeeded
to the Sandringham estate. In due course, he would sell this estate
to the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII. Charles was a deputy lieutenant
for Norfolk and served as the county's High Sheriff in 1846. Charles's
sisters Emily and Frances married the Earl of Shaftesbury and ViscountJocelyn. His eldest brother George passed away in 1856 and was succeeded
by his son as 7th Earl. Charles's second brother William Francis Cowper-Temple
was the 1st and last Baron Mount Temple of Mount Temple.

Charles was married twice but had no known children. On 1st September 1852,
he married Lady Harriet Anne Frances Gardiner, daughter of Charles
John Gardiner, 1st and last Earl of Blessington and Mary Campbell
McDougall. The Gardiner family, Earls of Blessington and Viscounts Mountjoy,
were the greatest owners of property on the north side. Their principal
residence, No. 10 Henrietta Street, was built by Luke Gardiner, Vice-Treasurer
of Ireland, and the family resided there for over a century. At the age
of 15, Lady Harriet had been married to the fashionable artist and dandy,
Count d'Orsay, but the marriage was an unhappy one and the couple
seperated in 1838. In the seperation agreement, Lady Harriet paid over £100,000
to d'Orsay's creditors (though even this did not cover all his debts) in
exchange for d'Orsay giving up all claims to the Blessington estate. A pencil
drawing the Count etched of Charles in 1846 survives today. Charles and
Harriet's only daughter, Mary Harriette Cowper was born in 1853 but
died the following year. The church at Sandringham was 'beautifully and
judiciously restored' by Lady Harriet in memory of the baby. The family
were in the third coach behind the hearse at the funeral of Lord Palmerston
in 1865. The charitable and pious Lady Harriet died in Paris on 17th December
1869 at the age of 55. In 1874 all the Gardiner property in Dublin,
except Henrietta Street, was sold in one lot for £120,000 to the Hon,
Charles Spencer Cowper. (1) This presumably included Clonliffe Road, originally
part of the nearby Cistercian stronghold of St Mary's Abbey.

On 11th April 1871, Charles was married secondly to the actress Jessie Mary McLean,
daughter of Colonel Clinton McLean. Prior to her marriage, Jessie was an actress on Broadway and was apparently romantically involved with the New York based lesbian actress and opera singer Felicita Vestvali (1824-1880). Jessie was referred to as a "large, dark-eyed Spanish Broadway beauty". The New York Times also referred to “the lovely young Jessie” and quoted a description of her as “something between Cleopatra and Venus; with a pair of flashing black eyes, that will accomplish what Packenham could not – take New Orleans by storm’. (NYT, 17 October 1855, p. 1).

Charles and Jessie had no issue
before his death in Rome on 30 March 1879 at age 62. On April 3rd
1879, The Times solemnly reported: 'We learn by telegram the intelligence
of the death at Rome, from fever, of the Hon Charles Spencer Cowper, who
has just passed away at the age of 63'. His short obituary concluded:
'In many of the capitals of Europe, Mr Spencer Cowper was well known
for his social charm and conversational talents'.

Jessie Spencer

Following his death in 1879, the estate of Charles Spencer Cowper passed
to his widow Jessie Mary McLean. Part of this inheritance included 'certain
land and house property in Dublin and 7,666 acres around Strabane
in County Tyrone which was then of considerable value but heavily mortgaged'.
According to a valuation made in 1879, these lands showed a surplus of about
£50,000. However, since Charles's death, Jessie had borrowed over
£10,000, mostly on the security of the property, which, with interest,
amounted to £16,000 by 1895. Jessie claimed that half of the £10,000
she borrowed had been to repay her late husbands debts and pay off the mortgage
interest. She only took £5000 for herself and that was because
'she had not derived any income from the property referred to, but had
relied upon voluntary allowances made to her by relatives, one of
whom paid her £600 per annum since 1882'. By 1894, Jessie was
in trouble and made an application to have her debts discharged. She ascribed
her insolvency to the depreciation in the value of Irish property
owing to the non-payment of rents, and to their reduction by the Land Courts.
As such, her income from these lands was lower than the amount she was paying
out to cover the interest in the mortgage and family loans. Nonetheless,
there were some discrepancies in Jessie's tale. On November 15th 1894, she
stumbled in her response to HJ Turrell (representing the creditor) saying
she 'might have borrowed £14,000 since her husband's death, but
she could not say whether that figure was correct or not'. The Times
further noted that Jessie 'had been in the habit of speculating
on the Stock Exchange and she had also dealt with John Shaw & Co.,
the outside brokers'. Jessie denied these transactions had resulted
in 'heavy liabilities'. In February 1895, the Judge found in Jessie's
favour, agreeing that the economic climate in Ireland had rendered the equity
of redemption valueless. As this was beyond Jessie's control, he agreed
that she should be given an immediate order of discharge.
Jessie died in Frankfurt on 7th October 1901. Her remains were buried
at Romsey on the 15th 'with Catholic rites in the grave
containing the body of the Hon. Charles Spencer Cowper'. Charles's nephew,
the Hon. Evelyn Ashley and his wife, Lady Alice Ashley, were the
only mourners, Earl Cowper being ill.

The 3rd Earl Cowper

The title of Earl Cowper (pronounced "Cooper") was created in
the Peerage of Great Britain in 1718 for Lord Cowper, the longtime
Lord Chancellor of Great Britain. Charles Spencer Cowper's paternal grandparents
were Sir George Nassau Cowper, 3rd Earl Cowper and Hannah Anne
Gore, daughter of Charles Gore. The 3rd Earl died young in December
1789 and was succeeded as 4th Earl by his eldest son, 13 year old George.

The 5th Earl, Melbourne & Palmerston

When George died aged 23 on 12 February 1799, the titles passed to his
younger brother - Charles's father - Sir Peter Leopold Louis Francis Nassau
Cowper, 5th Earl Cowper. (2) The 5th Earl was also invested as a Fellow
of the Royal Society. Charles's father, the 5th Earl Cowper, was born on
6 May 1778. Charles's mother Emily Mary Lamb, Countess Cowper, was
a sister of Prime Minister Viscount Melbourne and a daughter of Sir
Peniston Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne, by his marriage to Elizabeth Milbanke.
The 5th Earl and Lady Emily had two daughters and three sons, the youngest
of whom was Charles. The 5th Earl died on 21 June 1837 at age 59. Two years
later, on 16 December 1839, his widow Emily married, secondly, Henry John
Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, with whom she had no further children.
She died on 11 September 1869.

Emily, Countess of Shaftesbury

Charles's eldest sister was Lady Emily Caroline Catherine Frances
Cowper. On 10 June 1830, she married Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl
of Shaftesbury (1801 - 1st Oct 1885), the eminent philanthropist and
son of the 6th Earl and Lady Anne Spencer. She died on 15 October 1872.
They left issue:
1) · Lady Victoria Ashley, m. (1873) 2nd Baron Templemore,
+ d. 15 Feb 1927
2) · Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 8th Earl of Shaftesbury+ b. 27
Jun 1831, d. 13 Apr 1886
3) · Rt. Hon. Evelyn Melbourne Ashley, PC, of Classiebawn,
Co. Sligo & Broadlands, Romney, Hamps. He was born on 24 Jul 1836 and,
as barrister and MP, rose to become Private Secretary to Lord Palmerston
and an influential politician in his own right. By his first marriage (1866)
to Sybella Charlotte Farquhar, he had a son, Wilfrid, created
Baron Mount Temple of Lee (father of Edwina Mountbatten),
and a daughter, Lillian. In June 1891, Evelyn was married secondly to Lady
Alice Elizabeth Cole, daughter of William Willoughby Cole, 3rd Earl
of Enniskillen and Jane Casamaijor. The Hon. Evelyn died 15 Nov 1907.
As Evelyn and his wife Alice were the only members of the family to attend
the funeral of Jesssie Cowper, one wonders whether they might not have recived
a share of her lands in the inheritence. Classiebawn in County Sligo
later became home to the Mountbattens and was where the family were staying
on the day of Lord Mountbatten's murder in 1979.

Frances, Lady Jocelyn

Charles's second sister was Lady Frances Elizabeth Cowper. On 9th
April 1841, she married Robert Jocelyn, Viscount Jocelyn (1816 -
1854), son of Sir Robert Jocelyn, 3rd Earl of Roden and Hon. Maria
Frances Catherine Stapleton. She died on 26 March 1880, having had the misfortune
of burying her husband and all three of her children beforehand. Lady Frances's
eldest child, Lady Edith Elizabeth Henrietta Jocelyn married the Earl
of Arran and had four children but died in Basle, Switzerland, aged
26 on 3rd October 1871. (3) Lady Frances's youngest child, Frederick Spencer
Jocelyn died aged 19 just five weeks later. Lady Frances's middle child
Robert succeeded his grandfather as 4th Earl of Roden but died unmarried
aged 33 on 9th January 1880; Lady Jocelyn died 10 weeks later.

George, 6th Earl Cowper

Charles's oldest brother, Sir George Augustus Frederick Cowper,
was born on 26th June 1806. On 7th October 1833, he married Anne Florence
de Grey, Baroness Lucas, daughter of Sir Thomas Philip Robinson, 2nd
Earl de Grey and Lady Henrietta Frances Cole. Four years later, the
summer solstice of 21st June 1837 brought about the death of his father
and George succeeded as 6th Earl Cowper on. 1 He died on 15 April 1856 at
age 49. His widow, Anne, Countess Cowper, survived him by 24 years and died
on 25th July 1880.

Francis, 7th Earl Cowper, & his Siblings

The 6th Earl had two sons and four daughters. Two daughters had passed
by 1879 but the other four are all contenders for "Aunt Jessie's"'s
interest. The eldest son Sir Francis Thomas de Grey Cowper succeeded
as 7th Earl Cowper when he was 22. A member of Gladstone's British Liberal
party, the 7th Earl succeeded the Duke of Marlborough as Lord-Lieutenant
of Ireland between 1880 and 1882. One imagines the Cowper estate in
Dublin was of the essence at such a time. He married Lady Katrine Cecilia
Compton, daughter of Admiral William Compton, 4th Marquess of Northampton.
He died aged 71, without issue, on 18 July 1905 and so the Earldom and Barony
of Cowper and Viscountancy of Fordham became extinct. His other surviving
siblings were Hon. Henry Frederick Cowper (born 1836, a bachelor,
MP for Hertfordshire, died 10th November 1887), Lady Florence Amabell
Cowper (born 1837, married Hon. Auberon Edward William Molyneux Herbert,
two children, died 26 Apr 1886) and Lady Amabell Frederica Henrietta
Cowper (born 1846, married Admiral Lord Walter Talbot Kerr, 6 children,
died 15 Oct 1906).

William Francis Cowper-Temple, 1st and last Baron Mount Temple

Charles's second brother was William Francis Cowper-Temple, 1st
and last Baron Mount Temple of Mount Temple. He was born on 13th December
1811. He married, firstly, Harriet Alicia Gurney, daughter of Daniel
Gurney, on 27 June 1843. He married, secondly, Georgiana Tollemache,
daughter of Admiral John Richard Delap Tollemache and Lady Elizabeth
Stratford, on 22 November 1848. He was invested as a Privy Counsellor (P.C.)
and created 1st Baron Mount Temple of Mount Temple, Co. Sligo [U.K.]
on 25 May 1880, during which time his elder brother was Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland. He died, without issue, on 17 October 1888 at age 76. On his
death, his title became extinct.

The Cowper Papers

Some of the Earl Cowper papers are held by the Hertford
County Record Office; if enquiring, enter in subject "please direct
to HALS study room staff". Amongst the records that specifically relate
to Charles Spencer Cowper are:

There might well be further references to Charles Spencer Cowper to be
found within the Cowper papers, the full catalogue of which may be viewed
at the Access to Archives website www.a2a.org.uk. Herts Direct offer a research
service, charged in 2007 at £7.00 per 15 minutes of research. Further
information about the service can be found at www.hertsdirect.org/hals.